Ethiopia’s Orthodox Church has long helped bind the country together but is now struggling to resolve fissures among bishops from rival ethnic groups.
AMBO, Ethiopia — For years, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church has been one of the few institutions that helped bind this war-riven country together, unifying disparate ethnic groups around worship as their bitter differences threatened to tear Ethiopia apart.But this year, the church has been battling to heal its own divisions, triggered by language, politics, resources and war. The schisms, peppered with Biblical references to betrayal, are far from theoretical.
A November peace deal ended the armed conflict, but bishops in Tigray say the church supported the war and remained silent about deliberate crimes against civilians.Late last month, the General Synod announced that it had struck a deal with the Oromo bishops, rescinding their excommunication on the understanding that those they consecrated would not be considered bishops. The General Synod also announced it would send a delegation to Tigray, seeking to repair that schism.
This public reconciliation of the bishops won Abiy public plaudits. But some Oromo bishops felt the return of the exiles — many of whom were from the Amhara ethnic group — upset the synod’s balance of power. Few services are held in the Afaan Oromo language, because few Oromo priests and deacons are being trained, and the lack of Afaan Oromo services was driving people away from the Orthodox church toward Protestant churches, Hailemichael said.Frustrated by what they said was the slow pace of reform, three Oromo bishops ordained 26 priests as bishops in February without the patriarch’s approval. They in turn appointed Bishop Sawiros to be head of the new Oromo synod.
When the three bishops acted without church approval, bishops from outside Oromia feared an ethnically motivated power grab backed by the regional government. “Oromo politicians think that if they can control the church, they can control all Ethiopians,” said Bishop Petros, one of the Amhara bishops who returned with Abiy from the United States. “This is for ... money and power.”
On a rainy morning last month in the Oromia town of Ambo, a Washington Post reporter listened to a liturgy and a lesson read in Afaan Oromo. Curls of frankincense unfurled in the air as a choir of children, immaculate in white despite the mud, sang God’s praises. The church recently began alternating between Amharic and Afaan Oromo services, a priest explained.
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